1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of simulating an occurrence of an air pocket in an object to be immersed in a coating material tank and a program executable by a computer for executing the method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a program for simulating the occurrence of the air pocket in the object by dividing a shape data of the object into two-dimensional elements to thereby perform analysis thereon.
2. Related Art
Coating methods, for example, a plating method of immersing an object to be coated, such as a semiconductor or a vehicle body of an automobile, in a coating material tank filled with molten metal to thereby coat the object, and an electrodeposition coating method of immersing an object to be coated in a coating material tank filled with electrodeposition liquid to thereby coat the object, have advantages in that a coating film is substantially uniform in thickness, and that also, a weld part of the object can be coated. On the other hand, such coating methods have a drawback in that in a case where an air pocket occurs in a concave portion provided in a complicatedly shaped component or in a depressed portion of the inner surface of a hood or a roof, or the bottom surface of a floor of an automobile, no coating area can be formed in this portion.
Accordingly, the shape of the object to be coated is appropriately designed to prevent an occurrence of the air pocket. Then, the object is immersed (see, for example, JP-A-10-045037).
Meanwhile, it can preliminarily be determined by a known analysis method, which utilizes a free surface, whether an air pocket occurs in the object. However, analysis has hitherto been performed by dividing a shape data of an analysis object into three-dimensional elements. Thus, in a case where the object is complex in shape like a vehicle body, the analysis is complex. Consequently, it has been time-consuming to simulate a place at which an air pocket occurs.
A problem to be solved by the invention is to efficiently simulate an occurrence of an air pocket, which is formed in an object to be coated when the object is immersed in a liquid coating material to coat the object therewith, by simplifying analysis.